The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves, is currently projected to making somewhere between $100-125 million opening weekend. This is only the second movie to do so during the pandemic, with the first being Spider-Man: No Way Home (~$260M debut). This is great news for theaters and the box office since although movie ticket sales have increased, they are still not at pre-pandemic numbers.
The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as Batman, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, and Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon. Matt Reeves’ goal with this film was to make it of the film-noir genre and to have it actually showcase the detective side of Batman. This is something we have not really ever seen in an actual live action film. After all, Batman is known as The World’s Greatest Detective. The movie will also be a dark, gritty, and more realistic take on the superhero again, similar to the Nolan Dark Knight trilogy.
While there was a lot of backlash when Robert Pattinson was first announced for the role, as the movie has drawn closer, the sentiment has seemingly changed. A lot of people who have seen the movie at early screenings are raving about it and the movie currently boasts an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes on 171 reviews. We don’t know what it will settle at but this is tied with The Dark Knight Rises (9.3 on ATTL) for second best of the Batman live action movies. The Dark Knight reigns supreme at 94% on RT and 9.8 on ATTL.
When Reeves was first signed on for the film years ago, there was talk of this being another Batman trilogy. We learned last week that discussion for a sequel has already begun. Based on the projected numbers, this could be another very successful set of films for Warner Bros. The film was pulled from Russia at the last minute due to the crisis in Ukraine, which will impact the worldwide box office numbers somewhat.
This film is not set in the DCEU and is a standalone movie which I am game for as the DCEU has been underwhelming. Especially due to all of the decisions made with Zack Snyder and not letting him continue his vision. The movie is supposed to explore a younger version of Batman and more of his early days as the superhero.
Overall, I’m very excited to watch this one and I’ll be watching it opening weekend. Are you planning to watch it? See the trailer below.